Hillsborough tragedy: Justice delayed is justice denied

John Wight has written for newspapers and websites across the world, including the Independent, Morning Star, Huffington Post, Counterpunch, London Progressive Journal, and Foreign Policy Journal. He is also a regular commentator on RT and BBC Radio. John is currently working on a book exploring the role of the West in the Arab Spring.
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A Liverpool scarf is placed next to candles during a ceremony on the Kop terrace at Anfield stadium to mark the 15th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, Liverpool, April 15, 2004. (Reuters / Darren Staples MR / DBP) / Reuters

25 years after the event, and after one of the most tenacious and courageous campaigns for justice ever to take place in Britain, a public inquest into the Hillsborough tragedy has begun.

Ninety-six Liverpool FC fans died during an FA Cup semi-final
match against Nottingham Forest on 15 April 1989 at Sheffield’s
stadium.

The 96 who died on that awful day were crushed to death when the
police outside the stadium panicked at the size of the crowd
trying to get in after the match had started. The police
commander on the scene made the fateful decision to open an exit
gate and let those fans stream into an already overcrowded
standing section of the stand hosting Liverpool supporters.

Those who died and 766 who were injured at Hillsborough were the
victims of a monumental policing failure and an attempted cover
up in the aftermath. They were not killed by fellow supporters,
nor were their bodies desecrated, violated or in any way
criminally interfered with by their fellow supporters, as alleged
by the police and supported by a section of the right wing press
at the time. On the contrary, many lost their lives and many more
were injured trying to save others. Indeed, many of the lucky
ones who survived only did so because of the selfless actions of
others on that awful day, their courage a stark contrast to the
actions of the police, who initially refused to open the gates in
the security fence separating the fans from the pitch as the
disaster unfolded before their eyes.

The scenes of thousands of fans pleading with stewards and the
police on the other side of the security fence as people are
being crushed to death remain among the most harrowing ever
broadcast. Penned in like animals, their fate was considered less
important than preventing a pitch invasion, reflective of the
disdain in which football fans were held by the authorities and
the police at the time.

This criminal negligence continued when, of the forty-four
ambulances that arrived at the stadium in response to the
disaster, only one was allowed access, thus ensuring that many
died who may have survived if they had received medical attention
at the scene.

The theory put forward in the aftermath by the police that many
supporters were drunk and disorderly, that more fans had turned
up outside the stadium than had tickets and were attempting to
push their way in, was refuted by Lord Justice Taylor in his 1990
report into the tragedy. He laid the main responsibility at the
door of South Yorkshire Police and laid out recommendations for
improving safety at football grounds. This proved the one
positive thing to come out of Hillsborough and is the reason why
today people attending football matches are treated with the
respect and dignity they deserve in state of the art facilities,
at which their safety and comfort is considered paramount.

Compounding the suffering of the families of the victims and the
people of Liverpool in the aftermath were the obscene allegations
carried in the Sun newspaper at the time, accusing Liverpool fans
of urinating on the bodies of the dead and injured and rifling
their pockets as they lay on the pitch. It marked a low point in
British tabloid journalism and a low point in the sordid history
of the Murdoch Press. Yet in a shocking inversion of justice,
Kelvin MacKenzie, the editor of The Sun at the time and the man
responsible for the smears that appeared on its front page,
continues to enjoy a media career to this day. A boycott of the
newspaper has been in place in Liverpool ever since, illustrating
the kind of solidarity that the Kelvin MacKenzies of this world
could never understand.

By contrast the courage, dignity, and commitment to justice
demonstrated by the families over the two decades since the
tragedy took place, has ensured that the victims have never been
forgotten.

It was two years ago that the surviving family members of the
Hillsborough victims first witnessed justice being served after
so many years of disappointment, and of doors being slammed in
their faces by the judicial system and British political
establishment that had turned a deaf ear to their campaign. The
victory came with the formation of the Hillsborough Independent
Panel in response to growing pressure for the ambulance, police,
and other agencies involved in dealing with the disaster to
release previously withheld documents.

These previously withheld documents, new evidence which had been
denied previous inquiries into Hillsborough, revealed the scale
of the injustice, lies, and cover up that took place. It was
found that 41 of the 96 deaths could have been avoided if medical
attention had been administered on the pitch. It was also found
that 116 statements regarding the disaster had been altered by
the police. Along with this, the independent panel alleged there
had been ‘multiple failures’ on the part of other emergency
services involved at the scene, which contributed to the death
toll. All in all, the findings of the Hillsborough Independent
Panel were devastating, prompting Prime Minister David Cameron to
make a public apology in Parliament for the injustice suffered by
the victims and their families. More importantly, the Attorney
General, Dominic Grieve MP, announced that in response he would
consider the new evidence to decide if the initial verdict of
accidental death should be overturned.

The result is the public inquest that is now underway.

The axiom that justice delayed is justice denied has never been
more accurate when it comes to the campaign for justice for the
victims of the Hillsborough disaster. It constitutes yet more
evidence of the abiding disdain in which working people in the UK
are held by those in positions of power.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.